ROCK OF MY REFUGE

How often God’s people have suffered from the wrongdoing of others! Deliberate, brazen injustice seems to roll on like the tide. We cry to God with no apparent response. No wonder we sense a kinship with the psalmist when we read this 94th psalm. The first eleven verses relate to his request. In his cries to God, justice is desired, vv. 1-4. By the wicked oppressors,justice is disregarded, vv. 5-7. The psalmist reasons that, because of the characteristics of God, justice is demanded, vv. 9-11.

In the second section of the psalm, vv. 12-23, he speaks of God’s conquest, knowing that He will eventually ‘cut them off’, v. 23. The intervening verses reinforce a valuable lesson in our thinking. He speaks of God’s chastening, vv. 12-15. While God will bring justice to the circumstances, He is at work teaching this sufferer both truth and trust. He reflects onGod’s care, vv. 16-18, remembering that God has helped and held him up in the past. He appreciatesGod’s comforts, v. 19, that have delighted his soul in times of inward turmoil. Finally, perhaps best of all, He rests in God’s companionship, vv. 20-22. God’s purpose in working with the psalmist was to bring him to a place of rest, v. 13. That rest is in fellowship with God Himself. In verse 20, the psalmist asks if the throne of wickedness can have fellowship with God. Whatever else the wicked may do, this is the supreme accomplishment denied to them in their iniquity. In his trial, the ultimate blessing was that the faithful Lord had become his defence and the majestic God had become the ‘rock of my refuge’, v. 22.

This psalm is in a section that begins with ‘The Lord reign- eth’, 93.1. These psalms have special relevance to God’s people passing through the great tribulation before the promised kingdom. There, they will enter His presence and fill His courts with praise, Ps. 100. Psalm 94 expresses their suffering from the lawlessness of the man of sin.

Our circumstances will never equal Israel’s coming woes, yet, in our distress, He tenderly desires us also to steal away to His arms and to rest securely in the ‘rock of my refuge’.